Marty's 180g- New House... Old Love... (1 Viewer)

[David Grigor]

When I say ASAP, not meaning necessarily every day but definitely a couple times a week.

I've also been a big believer in HLLE being more of a food issue and chronic high nitate than carbon as the root cause. Not for sure on the ich if it was because the toxin irritant or not ( certainly is plausible ), ich outbreak and all LPS angry at the same exact time. Carbon fixed both in 48hours as well as the odor at the water surface.

 

[marty9876]

Week 1, scraped the bulk of it off and then ran a algae pad over the screen and rinsed the screen with salt water. Heck if I know what to do!

 

[David Grigor]

No algae pads unless it's slimey jusr use a credit card like scraper. Rinse with tap water under the utillity sink faucet is fine. No need to waste/use saltwater. It doesn't hurt/kill the algae. I like to use a large cutting board angled in the sink.

 

[marty9876]

Week #2 below. More "brown" stuff, some clumps/patches almost. Scrapped with a plastic scrapper and rinsed under tap (well) water.

Water quality still about the same. No3 a little lower perhaps. Between large WC (75g) cleaning out the sump this week, metal halide on fuge (note: MH + macro algae = macro algae growing) and a little GFO not sure what affect the ATS is having.

3-4 NO3
.14 PO4

 

[marty9876]

Week 3

Water quality about the same, haven't done a water change in a few weeks. Ran out of salt and don't want to pay full price for a box of IO.

3-4 NO3
.16 PO4

Hints of green stuff growing. More "stringy" and slightly less "slimy" than last few weeks. Remaining skimmer has increased output which I find interesting.

 

[David Grigor]

Making progress, while not a big deal at the moment but will probably want to scrub the top 1" or so right next to the slit to keep the growth down in that area so it will keep the flow consistant the whole week. As it fills in more that is the only real trouble area.

 

[marty9876]

I did scrub the top 1" in an effort to clean the slit, cleaned the screen off nicely.

 

[David Grigor]

Good to hear. Also sounds promising is already getting less slimy. It took a good 6-8 weeks for me to beat that phase.

 

[marty9876]

I'm starting to think having a completely covered ATS might be nice. I get the hunch ATS's like to start spraying out all over the place.

 

[David Grigor]

It shouldn't. But if you see signs of it despite scrubbing the top 1", next step is to block light from the slit.

 

[marty9876]

Week 4

No real change, little bit more green perhaps. No water tests yet, 40g water change and put come GAC and GFO back in the system (I mix BRS ROX & GFO in a 2-1 ratio and run in a reactor). Sucked out the stuff growing in the bottom of the ATS, brown bubbly stuff. Display tank looking well, first time I siphoned what substrate I have there in some time.

 

[marty9876]

One issue I'm having problems with is low PH. 7.67 scared me. I know systems can run 7.7-7.9 and be fine, still would like it a little higher.

Action taken so far: Yesterday - Installed an exhaust fan in the sump room venting outside, 240 CFM set to run 15 minutes every hour (and all the time if temps over 77). Two days ago I reversed the photo period on the fuge and ATS while increasing the ATS photo period to 14 hours. Since this is the first time I haven't have fish in QT down stairs I can finally flip the photo period around. Opened the windows yesterday, helped a little.

I calibrated the probe ~ 2 weeks so and it was pretty much spot on. Next steps are putting a screen over the top of the tank in sections instead of all glass lids. I don't want to do this for fear of increased evaporation in the new house. Might start dosing kalk too.

Fluke on the end is me cleaning out the sump.

 

[marty9876]

Week 5- about 1/2 the screen is now green. Water tests about the same, phosphate is way lower but unsure if that's because of a bad test on my part (forgot to look at the hanna meter before it shutoff) or what. Came up at .06 when I did a quick retest with the same vile.

 

[marty9876]

New sump installed. Didn't get as far as I has hoped this weekend but water is flowing. Mad props for Adam G. for helping out.

Left to do:
- Move ATS over to the wall on the left (need to pull sump out and drill a bulkhead in the back as things are too tall now)
- Hook up 75g
- Hook up ATO
- Hook up dosers
- Put lids on the mess!

Started with blank sump from Ocean Devotion closeout

Finished- inputs on right, wall for skimmer input on right, sock tray, reactor mounted, probe holder, doser and ATO inputs on back wall, float switch on left.

Man sized sump!

Start

No more fuge (might make 75g into fuge)

Big hole now (this is where Adam slowed down.... )

Mess but functional

Busy weekend ahead putting it all back together. The sock tray is way cool. Long term plans are a skimmer goes on the right with an external pump feeding it right off the main inputs.

 

[marty9876]

With the macro algea fuge offline the phosphate shot up from .06 range to .36 in a short time frame. This is with an ats running and estimated 80 gallons changed out between sump swaps etc. Nitrate is about the same, no gfo in use during the changes.

 

[Bambam507]

I really dig your fish room. wish I would have saw the meeting befor now.

 

[marty9876]

Generally things are going well. Fish growing, corals not so much. PO4 issues I'm working towards resolving. Macro/ATS/water changes not so much. LaCl3 dosing helping a lot, thinking of carbon dosing once things come down. Got a Shoal tang, Power Blue tang, Potters angel, pair of Flame angels in quarantine I pick up from Liveaquaria's open house. Got the tang I picked up from David in the fuge, that tang has brain damage (j/k). Dude is just a freak job, took 4+ weeks to eat in front of me, still skittish as heck.

Few updates, general focus is getting ready for my new tank.

- Installed 2nd skimmer I had back into the system. Cool part is the intake for the skimmer is before any of the filtration (mechanical etc). Feeding raw water to the skimmer is best. Long term I plan on using the feed/return for a really big skimmer but this is cheapest for now. Picked up the Iwaki pump from BRS garage sale for a sweet deal. I plan on either attaching the intake to the ETSS to fresh air/vent the exhaust out to outside or both. The ETSS skimmer pushes out so much air it raises the humidity in the room, not what I'm looking for.

- Installed some shelves, intent is to get the table against the wall and more out of the way. I really like the table but it doesn't work in the middle of the room. For the tank swap I'll have at least the 58g in the middle of the room for holding fish if not another tank or two.

- 75g QT setup, 58g on stand by.

- Most importantly, got some new tunes in the room!

- Next steps

• I'm about done with macro algae fuge, planning on putting what ever fish I feel like it in there and they can eat it all up.
• Thinking of converting the ATS from a 18" screen/24" light to a 36" screen/36" light. I reallt need to figure out how to contain the light in the box, makes reverse photo periods not work with fish in the room/caused coralline to grow in the sump.
• Need a new feed pump for the ATS/75g tank once other tank goes online as the main pump will be feeding just the tank
• Decide if going to move 180g downstairs
• Get new reactor online

ETSS

QT

Fuge

FTS I suck with cameras... Ben help!!!

 

[LowersMyBP]

Sweeeeet. Love the idea of the 180G downstairs. Oh the flexibility! I'm thinking butterfly tank?????

I have been deciding in the last few days that I need to get a flame angel or a pair of them.

You have a queen and an emperor. Ever done a blue face or the majestic angel? I want to get one of those, I keep going back and forth between the two of them, might come down to whichever I find in the store first.

Edit: Achilles, sohal and a powder blue. Man, talk about playing with fire. Hope it works out ok, that combination would make me nervous. The volume of your system gives you a good shot.

 

[marty9876]

Not sure why I picked up the sohal and powder blue tang, they need to be the last ones in the new tank. I've always wanted those, little extra time down stairs should not hurt. Yea, its gonna be fun, I need another zebrasoma tang to round out things, got a purple and des now. Thinking another purple or maa yellow.

I need a few more angels, you should do a harem of potters! I was thinking of a harem of flames but I don't think one could mix other centropye angels if one had the harem thing going on. chrysurus and a asfer are on my maybe list

 

[marty9876]

RIP 180g, knocked down 10/31/13